Go Vegan for a Healthier Life

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Consumers who choose to go vegan for a healthier life and happier planet rarely regret this life choice, even if others do not understand it.

A true vegan diet uses only foods that are plant based, and avoids any products that come from animals, including dairy products, honey, leather, silk, and wool.

Vegans choose to not use these products so as to limit their dependency on animals, thus eliminating their connection to any mistreatment or exploitation of animals.

Benefits of a Vegan Diet

Consumers who chose a vegan diet enable their bodies to fight off different diseases and significantly reduce their likelihood of contracting several different types of cancers. Vegans are very unlikely to become obese, have high blood pressure, suffer from gallstones, or be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetics who chose to use a vegan diet often find that they are not as dependent on insulin or other diabetic medications compared to those who eat a normal diet with meat. A vegan diet also reduces fat and cholesterol intake and increases the ingestion rates of dietary fiber and complex carbohydrates.

For these reasons, this diet is good for every member of the family, including children, grandparents, and nursing mothers.

Disadvantages of a Vegan Diet

Many people believe they cannot get enough proper nutrition when using a vegan diet, but with careful planning it is possible to get all the proper vitamins and minerals while on this diet.

Nutrients such as Omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B12, calcium, and iron are nutrients that may be completely supplemented with over the counter dietary supplements. How food is paired can also boost the nutritional intake for each meal.

If meals are not carefully arranged, it may result in a serious nutritional deficiency, making it especially imperative to plan vegan meals served to children, pregnant or nursing mothers, or the elderly since they are most sensitive to nutritional imbalances.

If proper nutrition is not available and you cannot choose over-the-counter supplements for whatever reason, then very careful consideration should be taken as to whether this is the right diet for you and your family.

Ask your doctor or other healthcare provider for ways to keep to a vegan lifestyle and still get the nutrition you need if you need healthy ideas. It is not worth sacrificing your health just to try a new diet, unless the potential benefits outweigh the risks involved.

How a Vegan Diet Benefits the Planet

A vegan diet does not only benefit the health of the consumer, it also provides added benefit to the planet as well. Meat production damages the planet because it causes water pollution, results in the degradation of land, and causes significant nitrous oxide emissions, in addition to consuming precious fossil fuels during production.

If every American would forego one serving of meat in a week, it would save over twenty-one million gallons of water and more than two hundred thousand kilocalories of fossil fuels. That’s enough water to fill thirty-two Olympic-sized swimming pools.